Sailing & Boating

A few years back a fly-fishing Englishman wandered into my shop, looking to book a guided kayak trip. I couldn’t do it that day so we set up something for the following morning. He was keen to get on the water after a long plane ride, so I loaned him a kayak and told him to paddle a few miles down...

St. Mary’s has not been much of a factor on the local high school sailing scene for nearly a decade now. Annapolis High and Severn School had become the dominant programs in Anne Arundel County while the likes of Archbishop Spalding, Broadneck and Key School enjoyed occasional success. That is...

Annapolis Yacht Club will christen its recently completed Sailing Center by conducting a broad-based symposium that will cover all aspects of race management. US Sailing president Cory Sertl is among several notable keynote speakers already committed to the inaugural AYC Race Officials Symposium,...

Few things spark greater joy within me than walking a trout stream. I can fish with riveted focus or simply let my thoughts float downstream and no one can tell the difference. Sometimes, neither can I, and perhaps that’s the best part. My buddy Jeff Lewandoski, who operates Gunpowder River Angler,...

Around Thanksgiving, local hunters and farmers teamed up with No Person Left Behind/Operation Outdoors to hold the annual “Marvin Dorsey SoCo Deer Hunt for Veterans.” Eleven military veterans from the Army, Jason Griggs, Dwayne Applebee, Sylester Goode and Matt Davis; Marines, John Brewer, Eric...

Fishing on the Chesapeake this time of year can mean hooking into big, beautiful rockfish full of vigor and fight. But to do so you’re also at the mercy of ever-changing weather, which as we’ve seen this past week can be brutally cold and blowing a gale one day, and flat-out gorgeous the next. ...

Four sailors attempting to deliver a 55-foot sailboat from Annapolis to Miami were rescued from the Atlantic Ocean by the U.S. Coast Guard on Tuesday. A Coast Guard news release said the crew was recovered just over 100 miles off Cape Lookout, North Carolina, after the Beneteau Oceanis 55.1 was...

I stopped by a buddy’s house the other day as he was poring over data points in preparation for a duck hunt, comparing date-and-time weather fronts, changes in barometric pressure and wind patterns to success. He’s meticulous about that kind of thing. Me, not so much; recently, my recollections...

The snow wasn’t so much as falling as lilting in a series of spirals that bent in pretty much any direction but straight down. The flakes seemed coughed up in puffs, captive to the gusts of a tempestuous northeast wind. Reports from the first weekend of Maryland’s duck season brought me some optimism....

Outdoors

It was an ordinary log from a paulownia tree, a seasoned slice of timber which, in another life, might have gone up in smoke in the fireplace of the Carson home in Havre de Grace. But Dan Carson had other plans for the 20-inch slab in his backyard. A mallard, it would be. Carving ducks is old hat...

With temperatures in the mid-40s Saturday, many people took to the outdoors in Harford County. The Ma & Pa Trail from Williams Street to Tollgate Road in Bel Air and from Tollgate Road to Annie’s Playground in Fallston, as well as the playground, were bustling with activity. Among the nature lovers...

Well, I guess I can claim success. First, I wanted to see the Pocomoke River. Second, I wanted to get outdoors this winter. Third, I wanted to experience some of that good winter pickerel and panfish action I enjoyed for years on the Magothy and Severn. Declaring success on the third item is a...